Who You Care About
by Roper
Summary: Family isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care about."
1. The Plans

Disclaimer: Everything and everyone belong to Josh Schwartz.

**"Family isn't about whose blood you have, its about who you care about." ** ** -TreyParker and Matt Stone, South Park** Chapter 1

Ryan sighed and looked around at his fellow classmates as they hugged their parents, jumping up and down, yelling 'its OVER its OVER!' as loud as they could, graduation robes tossed aside and hats thrown in the air. As disfunctional and unloving as his biological family was, Ryan still wished they'd come. Not Dad of course, he didn't want an ass kicking, he wanted an audience. A proud audience. One that wouldn't end up smacking him round the head, asking why he wasn't validictorian. One that would come to the ceremony sober and lucid, instead of under the influence.

He turned from his seat on the park bench to a spot not fifteen feet away where his mother was straitening his brothers graduation cap, much to his dismay, and his father watched on in amusement. Wait, not his father,his mother, his brother, and as painful as the truth was, not his family. But at least, on this very important day, they could be his audience.

"Ryan! Come on, were ready to go." Said Seth, from beside his parents. Ryan stood up from his seat on the bench and walked over to his 'family'.

"We are oh-so-excitedly talking about Seth's post-secondary plans."said Sandy, laying on the sarcasm. Ryan smirked in Seth's direction, who in turn rolled his eyes.

Ever since Seth had told his parents his plans on taking a year off, they've been having 'discussion' after 'discussion', apparently Sandy and Kirsten weren't pleased with his decision.

"Why don't we discuss this later," Said Seth, in an effort to change the subject and avoid getting chastised, "For now why don't we do the Cohen specailty?"

"Take out?" Ryan asked, knowing the answer.

"Take out." Seth confirmed, closing his eyes and nodding his head rightiously.

"We WILL discuss this later though." Kirsten stated, with a smile at her sons responding groan. She put an arm around Seth and headed toward the car.

Ryan, meanwhile, once again was scanning the croud. Was there any point? He asked himself, in hoping that they'd be there. Any of them? no, as usual his family had disappointed him, not that he had been expecting them, because he wasn't. not really. So he shouldn't be disappointed. Should he?

"Ryan?" Ryan started out of his daze and looked at Sandy, Kirsten and Seth were some feet behind him, looking on curiously. Ryan mentally cursed himself for letting down his guard, showing weakness. Sandy knew what he had been looking for, or rather, who he'd been looking for.

"Come on kid, lets get home." He said, locking his understanding gaze with Ryan's.

XxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxX

"So Ryan have you thought about it?" Seth asked, hopefully.

The two of them were in the poolhouse after eating a nice family meal of take out Chinese with Sandy and Kirsten. Ryan found it quite entertaining to watch as Seth avoid any and all questions about his non-college related plans. Seth had been paceing around the poolhouse and it was starting to irritate Ryan, who was lying on his stomach on the bed, reading

"Thought about what?" Ryan asked, looking up from Seth's legion comic, confused.

"The party!" Seth exclaimed as if it were so obvious. "Remember Dad asking us to plan it?"

Ryan's memory came flooding back. The party. Sandy and Kirsten's 20th anniversery party. Right.

"Yeah..yeah.. the party" He shook his head, chastising himself for forgetting.

"Good, cuz I was thinking we'd throw a rager, beer and marijuana everywhere, you know, bring Dad back to the old days." Seth made a motion bringing his fingers to his mouth in some half baked impression of smoking pot.

"Um..i had something different in mind," Ryan stated. Of course he hadn't even begun planning but anything to keep Seth from planning this party. Judgeing from his ideas so far, Ryan would have to take charge.

"Like what?"Seth asked, curiousity written all over his face. Seth could look so young sometimes, Ryan thought, he wondered idly if there was a time when Ryan himself had ever looked that young. He dismissed it.

"Um…maybe…big party.Ask Mr. Nichol if we can use his house. Everyone in Newport is invited. Invite Sandy's family to fly over. Get Summer and Marissa to decorate." Ryan finished, a little shocked that all that had come out off the top of his head.

"Wow." Seth was speechless, for once, whether it was that he hadn't been expecting such seemingly thoughtout ideas or the fact that it was the longest sentence that he'd ever heard Ryan say. Probibly the latter. He snapped out of it soon enough.

"So whats my job?" He asked, excitedly.

"Why don't you call everyone." Ryan suggested. Seth looked disappointed at such a stupid and boring task.

"Why me? Why not you?" he pouted. Ryan gave him a 'isn't it obvious look'. Seth understood.

"Right…the 'criminal from Chino that is 'supposedly' mooching off all our money' might not be so well received." Seth then bounced off to complete his task.

Ryan sighed and set to work.

XxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxX

Ryan was completely overwhelmed. The party was tomorrow night and the caterer had backed out, the Cohen's flight had been delayed until the morning and he had just gotten a desperate call from the crab shack asking him to work both today and tomorrow.

He slumped back on his bed, defeated.

"oh Come on Chino relax. We have everything covered." Right, Summer and Marissa were over, going over the decoration plans with him and Seth.

"Yeah Ryan, don't worry about it, go into work, we'll go over everything with Seth." Marissa reassred. Ryan looked at her pointedly.

"Don't worry Chino we won't take any of his advice." Summer stated.

"Hey, I'll have you know, that I am quite the decorator." Seth defended, " Just take a look at the Cohen Boudoir, come on Summer I'll show you, Marissa you stay here…unless" Seth raised his eyebrows up and down comically. He was responded to with a slap on the arm from Summer and Marissa.

"I won't be able to help with anymore planning." Ryan stated, worried but a little relieved to have the responsibility ready to be taken off his shoulders.

"Relax okay? We got it covered." Seth sighed, exasperated, "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"I'll be late for the party." Ryan thought allowed.

"That's okay we won't start up anything until you get there." Marissa said, " Now go or you'll be late for work. Ryan sighed, relenting and stood up, grabbed his stuff and headed for the door. He stopped halfway and turned around, opening his mouth to speak.

"We'll call you if we need your help." Summer reassured once again, "Go." Ryan turned and left.

"What a worrier." Seth snorted, "We can handle this, how hard can it be, its just one tiny..huge, very important party."

"Okay, we can do it. Seth any ideas of what you and Ryan wanted for flowers and table linens?" Marissa asked, getting down to business. Seth sat down on Ryan's bed.

"Well, Ryan was thinking that we'd go for the whole Frank Miller theme and get everything in black and white-" Seth stopped himself at the annoyed looks he was getting and quickly righted himself, "But I was thinking that you guys should just go with what you're compfortable with."

XxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxX

"Oh my god I think I'm going to hyperventilate." Seth breathed, panicked.

"Cohen, calm down. You're overreacting." Summer said from beside him.

"Oh god this is like Hailey locking us in the poolhouse all over again." Seth now had a paper bag over his mouth and nose breathing in and out in and out.

"Seth, chill out its just one mixed up appitizer." Marissa reassured him.

The caterers had mixed up the cocktail weenies that they had ordered with calimari.

"No its not! This whole thing's a disaster! Its starting in a few minutes and if Dad doesn't see his cocktail weenies, we are all going to pay!"

The party was moments away and people were just starting to arrive at Caleb's, meanwhile Seth was panicking, and Ryan was still at work.

"He isn't going to care Cohen." Summer vented, "Just relaxed we got everything covered."

The doorbel rang and Marissa went to answer it. She was rewarded with the sight of quite a number of people with black curly hair standing on her porch.

"Hi you must be the Cohens, come right in." She stepped aside. There was an elderly woman in front, along with five adults and quite a number of kids.

"Sethela!" cried the elderly woman, who Marissa presumed to be Sandy's mom.

"Hi Nana." Seth immediately threwaway his paper bag so as to not show weakness in front of the most intimidateing person he'd ever met. He hugged his grandmother and then, in turn all of his curly haired relatives.

"um..everyone its great to see you. This is my girlfriend Summer, and my friend Marissa. Girls these are my relatives." Seth introduced so as not to need to introduce each one.

The kids ran off to look around what was in their oppinion, the biggest house they'd ever seen.

"So Sethela are Sandy and Kirsten here yet?" his Nana asked, looking around.

"Not yet Nana, they won't be here for another forty five minutes. If you want drinks the kitchen is that way." Seth directed his family.

"What about Ryan," his Aunt Terry asked, "We've all been dying to meet him." The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"He actually got pulled into work but he'll be here soon I promise."

TBC….


	2. The Party

Chapter 2

"Sandy, where are we going? You said you were taking me out to dinner." Kirsten knew something was up, she was a smart woman. All of this suspicion told her one thing: surprise party.

"We are going to dinner, its just a ….new restaurant." Sandy had always been a terrible lier when it came to lieing to Kirsten, she could always tell.

"Okay Sandy," Kirsten just went along with it, not pushing.

They were driving in Sandy's BMW in a direction that looked suspiciously like towards her fathers mansion. Kirsten looked over at Sandy in the drivers seat, he looked nervous.

'Oh god let the boys have pulled it off,' Thought Sandy. He was sweating now, normally he wouldn't have been this nervous but it was his 20th anniversity, and Seth had been left in charge of party prep. Not that he wasn't confident in Seth's party planning abilities but he had the inkling that if Seth had planned this from the start, they'd have ended up inviting all of Sandy's old hippy friends and instead of appetizers they'd have joints or something like that in some twisted version of what Seth called 'reminding Dad of the good old days' whereafter he would make some barely recognisable gesture that Sandy guessed symbolised taking a puff of a joint. In other words, he prayed that Ryan had done most of the planning.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the BMW pulled up outside Caleb's. Sandy looked over to his wife, who gave him a look. She knew.

They stepped out of the car and walked towards the big oak door.Sandy breathed deeply, ready for possible disaster. He raised his hand and knocked. A moment passed and the door opened…

"SURPRISE!" It looked like everyone in Newport was there, the decorations looked fabulous, the food looked great and-

"Sandy!" Sandy turned his head to see his eldest sister Steph run up and hug him.

"What-" Sandy was cut off,

"You didn't honestly think that we'd miss this, did you Sandy?" said a voice to his right, his brother Rick.

"Rick? Anne?" Kirsten looked just as surprised as Steph hugged her too. Sandy looked around, they were all here, Steph, her husband Gary, their kids Jackie, who was 8, Chris who was 12 and Mike, 16, Terry, her husband Ray, their twin daughters Tara and Jenny, 15, Rick and his two boys Mark, 5 and O'Neil, 9, and last but not least, if she had anything to say about it, his mother, The Nana.

After everyone greeted Sandy and Kirsten, things got more mellow, Sandy and Kirsten went over to Seth, Summer and Marissa to talk.

"Thank you guys for doing this, the party turned out great." Sandy said, very grateful that it hadn't turned into a pot smokeing stoner bash.

"Yeah thank you guys, this is excellent. Where's Ryan, by the way, I wanted to thank him." Kirsten said, looking around.

"He's gonna be a little late," Seth explained, " He was called into work, he'll be here soon." He hoped so.

"Oh, okay," Kirsten was a bit disappointed, it was an important occasion, she wanted her whole family here, and Ryan was part of her family now.

"Kiki, there you are," Caleb walked up swiftly, kissed Kirsten on the cheak, "Happy anniversary," he nodded to Sandy as he shook his hand.

"Thanks Cal..that's sweet of you." Sandy said, cheekily. Just then his mother walked up.

"Sandy, where is Ryan, everyone is anxious to meet him now that he's the newest member of our family," Said the Nana. Caleb snorted,

"Maybe your family." He said under his breath as he walked away, of course, everyone heard.

"Am I missing something?" The Nana questioned Sandy and Kirsten.

"My father feels very … against.. Ryan joining the family." Kirsten explained.

XxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxX

He was late, he was very late. Ryan glanced at his watch as he rode his bike quickly down the road. Sandy and Kirsten were already at the party by now, he thought. Seth said he wouldn't start any of the speeches with out him so that was a relief, but he didn't want to disappoint Sandy and Kirsten in being very very late for such an important occasion.

Don't worry, Ryan said to himself, you're almost there.

…….

"Where is he?" Seth asked Summer and Marissa for the forth time in the past 20 minutes.

"Seth, I have never seen you this stressed," Marissa stated as they stood apart from the crowd, waiting for Ryan. "I didn't think that you even felt stress."

"I don't but I really really don't want to have to go up there in front of all those people all alone." Seth said honestly, shakily.

"We can go up with you Cohen, if Chino doesn't get here soon." Summer stated, more confidently than she felt, she hated public speaking.

"No, that's okay, no offense but I was thinking that I'd just be family, you know?" Seth said gently, not sarcastically? He must be nervous.

Seth glanced at his watch, "Okay, we can't wait any longer, I gotta do this now." He took a deep breath and walked towards the stage. When he got up there his anxiety, if possible, got worse. All those people. Shit.

"Ahem." Seth cleared his throat. Nothing happened, no one looked up. He looked around and picked up a champagne glass and a knife. Just like in the movies, he told himself. He hit the knife against the glass making a loud ringing sound just a little to close to the microphone, which made it a really really loud ringing sound. Everybody winced, but it worked, they looked over at him.

Seth breathed in deeply again and put the glass down. Just don't be an idiot, he told himself. Who knew that Seth Cohen, the best entertainment you can get, was afraid of public speaking.

"Um…I'd uh…first like to thank..Marissa and Summer, for uh..for all the decorating they did." Seth breathed nervously as the crowd applauded and the girls blushed. Damn he wished Ryan were here.

While he was thinking to himself, the audience had stopped applauding and was once again staring at him expectantly. He hesitated and looked at his parents who were front row center smiling encouragingly, Kirsten gave him a thumbs up, Seth rolled his eyes at her.

"Anyway…uh we are here to celebrate my parents 20th anniversery…obviously." He added. God this couldn't get any worse, he told himself, he saw Julie Cooper out of the corner of his eye, smirking.

His mouth was dry, he didn't think he could continue,

"Uh…" He looked up and was very very very very very relieved to see Ryan jogging towards the stage and unconsiously said, "Oh thank god." Into the microphone.

Ryan went up the stairs and onto the stage, and Seth practically threw the microphone at him. Ryan looked at him questioningly, Seth whispered,

"I hate to admit it, and don't tell anyone, but your hero, Seth Cohen, has stage fright," he gestured that Ryan should start. Ryan turned towards the crowd and, like Seth had done moments before, breathed deeply.

"Uh…hi, I'm Ryan, this is my brother Seth, in case you don't know. And we are the ones that planned this party, at Sandy's request, and … I hope.. we did him proud." He looked to Sandy, who smiled and nodded.

"Kirsten and Sandy are the most amazing people I know. Kirsten is a great mom and wife and shes so dedicated to everything she does. Its unbelievable how she works so hard yet still manages to spend time with her family." Kirsten smiled at Ryan, reassuring him that he was doing okay.

"Sandy is an excellent family man and an amazing lawyer..i should know." As nervous as he was, Ryan felt that this was going well, he looked to Seth beside him, who still looked grateful to not be the one talking.

"A little over a year ago I had nothing and no one, Sandy and Kirsten took me into their home and gave me the thing I wanted the most, a family. We'd like to say thank you for everything you've done for Seth and I." He handed the microphone to Seth, who looked as ready as he'd ever be.

"Thanks mom and dad for being the best parents we could ask for." Kirsten and Sandy's eyes were watering by the end of the speech. They were so proud of their boys. Kirsten mouthed a 'thank you' to them, tearfully.

"If anyone else would like to come up and say something…" Seth said. as expected, Marissa and Summer rushed up onto the stage. Marissa took the microphone.

"We just wanted to say thank you," she spoke, "I have always been given a welcome in the Cohen home and I appreciate it, its amazing that Sandy and Kirsten can be so loving, even to kids that aren't their own." Kirsten smiled and clapped along with the audience.

Summer was next, "as Ryan and Seth said, Sandy and Kirsten are amazing and they, like, accomplished so much, and Sandy makes awesome bagels." Everybody chuckled.

The girls stepped aside and handed the microphone to Caleb who had been waiting.

" I, aswell, just wanted to say thank you to my daughter and her husband. Kirsten an excellent asset to the Newport Group and Sandy, though it was difficult to accept him at first, as a son-in-law, I admit, that I've grown to accept him," he paused and could hear Sandy speak up,

"Aw, Thanks Cal." From the front row.

"And dispite some of his…misjudgements," Caleb quite obviously looked over at Ryan, who said nothing, "He is now a welcome member of my family." Everybody applauded as he finished.

Kirsten looked over at Sandy, "Tell me he didn't just do that." She said, speaking of course about Calebs comment about Ryan. Sandy looked back at her,

"Honey, if I've told you once, I'll tell you a thousand times…there is _nothing_ that your father wouldn't do."

TBC…..


End file.
